Why We've Retired Hot Tears of Shame

Late last week, we introduced the "MAXIMUM RISKY" tag. Questions appeared: Where did the "Hot Tears of Shame" one go? Why did it leave us? Does it hate us now? Don't get us wrong, we love the "Hot Tears of Shame" tag, but we had to retire it. While we popularised the phrase, it was originally coined by writer Patrick Macias for his podcast. We're gianormous fans of Macias and have featured him and his books several times on Kotaku: here, here, here and here. Heck, I even write for his magazine Otaku USA and just finished up a piece for him last month. Macias doesn't cover games at all, but "Hot Tears of Shame" was our homage to him and the quirky Japan reporting he's done.

When we started using the tag last summer, we had no idea that it would snowball in the Internet Juggernaut it did. The phrase has since ventured in meme territory! Thing is, people have been starting to think that Macias was ripping us off and going to his site, expecting to see half-naked Kasumi figurines and Hot Shots Golf upskirts. Macias doesn't cover that! We do! And we ripped him off!! So, to end all confusion and makes sure Patrick gets his dues, we're retiring HTOS, returning it to its rightful owner and moving on to "MAXIMUM RISKY." We plan to push the envelope with "MAXIMUM RISKY" even more than we have before with dangerous and risky posts. Just don't go thinking that the Japanese adult film by the same name is copying us, m'kay? [Pic]